Coffin Dodgers [Kindle Edition]

I've been reading and liking Gary Marshall's journalism for years. And here along comes his first novel, so I've read that too. And it's good.

The world is full of books which say "I laughed till I cried" on the cover but which turn out to be utterly unfunny when you read them. This is not one of those books. It is proper funny, and actually made me laugh.

It also contains murders and plots and mystery. The characters seem real, their dialogue is natural and believable. The prose goes straight from the page to your head without your having to think about reading, the way good writing does. And the book does a nice job of taking you a little way into a plausible future: not slamming loads of over-the-top high-tech nonsense into your face every paragraph but just gently reminding you from time to time that it's not quite the here-and-now.

I loved it.

This the first time that I've felt compelled to actually write a review but I'm genuinely annoyed that I was duped into buying it by the large number of 4 and 5 star reviews. I generally ignore reviews when I can, however I was looking for a quick and easy read for my daily commute and this seemed to fit the bill. Turns out, not so much.

First off, the blurb in the product description doesn't say exactly who has compared it to the likes of Christopher Brookmyre and Colin Bateman, however I can only assume that they have never actually read books by either author as the only similarity I could find was that it contained a lot of words. Comparing this book to anything by Chris Brookmyre is like comparing a McDonald's Value Meal to a meal in a Michelin-starred restaurant. (In retrospect, maybe that's why it was only 99p...?) Don't mean to be harsh but, seriously, this isn't in the same league and to market it as such is just plain wrong.

The basic premise is similar to that from "Children of Men" and the plot is pretty weak. The story trundles along at a barely acceptable pace, which gets frustrating after a while as it is also pretty predictable. The worst thing about this book, however, is the dialogue. The dialogue is actually the reason I abandoned it long before the end. The supposedly 'witty banter' is dire, yet the three main protagonists find themselves, and each other, constantly hilarious and you soon get fed up reading about them grinning (seriously, I've never known anyone to grin as much as these idiots) and rolling around in fits of laughter. Don't get me wrong, I love laughing. I laugh a lot. However, this book mainly just made me want to smash my Kindle with a large hammer and then throw it into the sea.

This book isn't necessarily terrible; it's the sort of novel I would have loved when I was 14 years-old. In that respect I think it would have been better tucked away in the 'Teen Fiction' section, rather than marketed as Brookmyre/Bateman-style novel. The lack of profanity means it would probably fit in quite nicely too. Just a thought, Amazon, just a thought.

I love comedy and crime combined in books and films. When it works well, there can be nothing better. I don't think The Coffin Dodgers has the inventiveness of Christopher Brookmyre or Colin Bateman, nor does it have the pace and punchiness of films like Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead. But this is a decent enough novel and in the areas where Marshall seems to be lacking, he makes up for in humour.

This is the second laugh out loud novel that I have been fortunate enough to read this year (the first being Tony Royden's superb dark comedy thriller The Dealer) and for this reason alone I would be happy to recommend The Coffin Dodgers - it is an enjoyable read.